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Lex Korten

is a performer and composer from New York City who has become a defining pianist of his generation

in the contemporary Jazz community, gathering accolades from worldwide audiences, publications and great luminary figures alike. Lauded by The New York Times, All About Jazz and other outlets for his charismatic, vulnerable improvisatory approach and unquestionable musicianship, Korten unyieldingly seeks to nurture a deeper multidirectional experience between artists and listeners, and to honor his adopted home among the great Black American Musical art forms.

photo by Bill Douthart

About Lex

Born in 1994 to parents with a boundless record collection and multifaceted languages of love towards music, Lex Korten discovered a personal relationship with the work of greats Duke Ellington and Jaki Byard at an early age. His childhood in Manhattan’s Upper West Side allowed him to pursue mentorships with several decorated pianists and achieve modest accolades in the national high school circuit, but it wasn’t until Korten moved to Ann Arbor to study with Geri Allen that his path began to bend more trustfully towards a musical career. By the time he earned his BFA and relocated homeward, Korten had spent 4 years as an apprentice of the great legacy of Detroit Jazz and experimental music, while also completing two years of close mentorship with Benny Green and others at the University of Michigan.

Korten’s auspicious first steps into the spotlight came in 2018 with a life-changing appointment to the piano chair of Tyshawn Sorey’s newly formed “Unfiltered.” sextet which toured and recorded intermittently for the following four years to notable acclaim. During this period, Korten won 1st prize in the UNISA International Piano Competition in South Africa and began cementing a reputation among his peers in New York as a valuable sideman and promising composer, bringing his first projects to The Jazz Gallery in Manhattan where he continues to perform today.

Since the pandemic, Lex Korten’s emergence into the echelons of the Jazz world has become ever more rapid and difficult to ignore. The list of renowned artists seeking Korten’s contributions over the last few years has become impractically long and impressively diverse, including the likes of Jaleel Shaw, Melissa Aldana, Joel Ross, Tyshawn Sorey, Robert Hurst, Caroline Davis, Mike Moreno, Ari Hoenig, Fay Victor, Dayna Stephens, Jonathan Kreisberg, Joe Farnsworth, Massimo Biolcati, Ben Solomon, Ndabo Zulu, John Ellis, Chris Turner, Joel Harrison, Or Bareket, Lage Lund, Nick Dunston, Luther Allison, DoYeon Kim and Clarence Penn to name just a few. Korten’s touring schedule yearly reaches dozens of US states and worldwide clubs and festivals, in between which he teaches lessons at The New School or privately at his home in New York City. In addition, Korten has given lessons and classes internationally to students from Greece, Germany, South Korea, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina, Switzerland, China, Malaysia, Australia, the United Kingdom (at the Royal Academy of Music in London) and at several universities in the USA. His performance credits include an extensive list of esteemed theaters such as The Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.) or Teatro Amazonas (Manaus, Brazil) and international festivals (North Sea, Montreal, Earshot, etc).

photo by Anna Yatskevich

Perhaps most notably of all, and most enduringly, Lex Korten has defined the first decade of his career by his immersion in his own generation’s forward pushing activity in a way that sidesteps traditional barriers between scenes and styles. Among his 30+ recording credits are projects representing a thorough cross section of the 21st century’s rising leaders in improvised music; names like Simon Moullier, Milena Casado, Zoh Amba, Nicola Caminiti, Tyrone Allen, Hannah Marks, Ben Tiberio, Claire Dickson, Morgan Guerin, Alex Hitchcock, Sasha Berliner, Alfredo Colón, Linda Sikhakhane and more. Korten’s own bandleading projects include the Lex Korten Trio and Quartet, Flowstone; a duet with alto saxophonist Alden Hellmuth  and Canopy; an experimental 5-member ensemble. Currently, Lex Korten’s long anticipated debut original album has completed production and is due for release in 2025. In 2021, he self-released "Foreward," a solo piano album of standards comprised of his award winning performances the previous year in Pretoria, South Africa.

Lex Korten currently is an active bandleader in New York City, bringing his projects to stages at Lincoln Center, Mezzrow, Smalls, The Jazz Gallery, and across a blossoming roster of great Jazz clubs in Brooklyn while also appearing at experimental venues including Roulette and The Stone. As a native New Yorker, Lex is an avid student of NYC's history through the present day, and otherwise interested in urban geography as well as graphic design, cooking, travel, and film. While a student at the University of Michigan, Lex double majored in Political Science, taking classes at the Ford School of Public Policy, although he ultimately chose to graduate with only his Music BFA. Some of Lex's favorite composers active in 2024 include Angel Marcloid, Tyshawn Sorey, Ramona Andra Langley, Daniel Lopatin, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Cryptovolans.

In The Press

Critic's Choice: Best Pianists of 2020 - El Intruso 13th annual critic's poll

"among some of the top Jazz talents in New York City" - Broadway World

"impeccable musicianship and characterful playing" - All About Jazz

"flowed in a contemplative, somber vein, now and then building to moments of ferocious intensity" - The New York Times

"Counterpoint phrases and a whiff of dissonance prove to be rhetorical devices Korten is prone to (...), signaling his compositional approach as an especially distinct kind" - All About Jazz

Selected Discography

Simon Moullier "Elements of Light" Candid, 2024

Alfredo Colón "Blood Burden" Out of Your Head, 2024

Nicola Caminiti "Vivid Tales of a Blurry Self Portrait" independent, 2024

​Hannah Marks "Outsider, Outlier" Out of Your Head, 2023 (as special guest)

Karl Henrik Ousbäck "Confluence" Fresh Sound, 2023

Massimo Biolcati "Momenta" Sounderscore, 2021 (as special guest)

Ben Tiberio "Rare Peace" Outside In, 2021

Lex Korten "Foreword" independent, 2021

Tyshawn Sorey "Unfiltered." independent, 2020

Linda Sikhakhane "An Open Dialogue" Skay Music, 2019

Morgan Guerin "The Saga II" independent, 2017 (as special guest)

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